Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth.

— Zhuangzi

Life, death, preservation, loss, failure, success, poverty, riches, worthiness, unworthiness, slander, fame, hunger, thirst, cold, heat - these are the alternations of the world, the workings of fate. Day and night they change place before us, and wisdom cannot spy out their source. Therefore, they should not be enough to destroy your harmony; they should not be allowed to enter the storehouse of the spirit. If you can harmonize and delight in them, master them and never be at a loss for joy; if you can do this day and night without break and make it be spring with everything, mingling with all and creating the moment within your own mind - this is what I call being whole in power.

— Zhuangzi

Master Doggo asked Huangdi, "This thing called the Way - where does it exist?" Zhuangzi said, "There's no place it doesn't exist."" Come," said Master Doggo, "you must be more specific!"" It is in the ant."" As low a thing as that?"" It is in the panic grass."" But that's lower still!"" It is in the tiles and shards."" How can it be so low?"" It is in the piss and shit!

— Zhuangzi

Men all pay homage to what understanding, but no one understands enough to rely upon what understanding does not understand and thereby come to understand.

— Zhuangzi

Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.

— Zhuangzi

Men of the world who value the Way all turn to books. But books are nothing more than words. Words have value; what is of value in words is meaning. Meaning has something it is pursuing, but the thing that it is pursuing cannot be put into words and handed down. The world values words and hands down books but, though the world values them, I do not think them worth valuing. What the world takes to be values is not real value.

— Zhuangzi

Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.

— Zhuangzi

Only he who has no use for the empire is fit to be entrusted with it.

— Zhuangzi

People who excuse their faults and claim they didn't deserve to be punished - there are lots of them. But those who don't excuse their faults and admit they didn't deserve to be spared - they are few.

— Zhuangzi

Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education.

— Zhuangzi